Investigations have revealed that 150 undergraduate academic programmes in Nigeria’s public and private universities are unaccredited according to Premium Times.
The 2016 accreditation status report by the National Universities Commission (NUC) revealed that the unaccredited courses are living in 37 of 143 universities in the country.
For a course to be accredited, the NUC says, it must meet the Benchmark Minimum Academic Standards (BMAS) that has been drawn up by the commission.
Such a course, officials say, must have qualified faculty members, good learning environment and adequate teaching materials – equipment, books and journals.
Courses with full accreditation are due for re-accreditation every five years during which some courses might lose or keep their certification. Some fully accredited courses could be slammed with interim accreditation if their facilities and faculty are found to have depreciated.
Courses with interim accreditation are due for reassessment after two years, and back to back interim accreditation automatically leads to loss of accreditation.
The NUC says accreditation of courses is necessary to make sure “employers and other members of the community that Nigerian graduates of all academic programmes have attained an acceptable level of competency in their areas of specialization.”
The affected universities include universities such as the University of Nigeria, Nsukka; University of Benin, University of Jos, University of Calabar and the University of Abuja which has 15 of its courses, including Law, unaccredited.
